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Monday - Recipes

Crockpot Chicken and Vegetables
Herbed Rice
Fruit of Your Choice

Tuesday - Recipes

Meatloaf
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans

Wednesday - Recipes

Panko Chicken
Creamed SPinach
Salad
Fresh or Canned Pears

Thursday - Recipes

Chicken Enchiladas
Refried Beans
Salad

Friday - Recipes

Fried Rice
Edamame
Grapes

Grocery List

This week's Grocery List can be downloaded here:

Grocery List for January 2-6, 2006 - PDF

Shopping List Software format (download shopping list free Windows software)

 

Monday Recipes

Notes for Monday:

1. Today's slow cooker recipe is from Heidi. It is perfect for a day when you will not be home for dinnertime preparation.
   
   
2. If you do not have cooked onion in the freezer, this would be a good time to pick up a bag of onions and chop the whole thing and saute in olive oil until transparent, then freezer in dated freezer bags.

 Crockpot Chicken and Vegetables

• 2 cups fresh baby carrots
• 4 medium white or red potatoes, cut into quarters
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 bell pepper any color, chopped
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• Adobo seasoning to taste

Place carrots, potatoes, onion, chicken and pepper in crock in order. Mix soup, water, adobo, and oregano and pour over chicken. Top with paprika. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

 

 Herbed Rice

• 3 T. olive oil
• 1 medium onion chopped (from freezer)
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 green pepper chopped, seeded
• 1 c. long grain rice (or brown rice* for healthier version)
• 2 c. chicken broth (if you are using brown rice add extra water)
• herbs of your choice (basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, etc.)

Thaw onion. Saute garlic and green pepper in oil until transparent. Add rice and onion and brown until lightly browned. Mix the rest of the ingredients and add to pan. Cover and cook 20-25 minutes (longer, closer to 45 minutes, for brown rice).

 

 Fruit of your choice

 

Tuesday Recipes

Notes for Tuesday:

1. I am not a meatloaf fan, but even I like this variation.

 Stuffed Meatloaf

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup dry red wine or beef broth*
• 1 tsp. Adobo or garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp. thyme
• an additional 1 cup cheddar cheese
• 1 large jar chopped pimento

Mix all ingredients well except additional cheese and pimento. Press out on wax paper to a rectangular shape, 1/2" thick and the length of your loaf pan. Sprinkle with the additional cheese and the pimento, then roll up jelly-roll style using the wax paper to get the roll started. Place loaf pan upside down on wax paper over the rolled up meatloaf and flip all of it rightside up to put loaf in the pan. Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until done.

 

 Mashed Potatoes

• 6 potatoes
• 4 Tbsp. butter
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 oz. cream cheese
• milk
• Adobo seasoning to taste

Peel potatoes and quarter. Boil in enough water to cover potatoes until potatoes are tender. Drain. Mix all ingredients except milk and mash with a potato masher or large fork. Add enough milk to make potatoes creamy. If you like very creamy mashed potatoes you can use a mixer to get a good whipped consistency. If you like lumpy potatoes, I recommend using a fork or potato masher to maintain a more solid consistency. If you want a healthier version, omit sour cream and cheese, mix with skim milk and add butter buds for flavor.

 

 Green Beans

• 1 lb. fresh green beans
• 1-2 tbsp. butter
• 1/2 packet Good Seasons Italian dressing or Adobo* (optional)

Wash and steam beans (string if necessary). Melt 1-2 tbsp. butter in a large fry pan and saute beans just until covered with butter and hot. For extra flavor you can add a half packet of Good Seasons Italian dressing (unprepared) or Adobo seasoning.

 

Wednesday Recipes

Notes for Wednesday:

1. Make enough salad tonight for 2 nights and save half for tomorrow, waiting to add croutons and salad dressing until serving time.

 Panko Chicken

• 1-2 cups Japanese breadcrumbs (if you can't find them, use regular breadcrumbs)
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 lb. chicken tenders (uncooked, frozen or thawed)

Put mayonnaise and breadcrumbs in separate bowls. Dip chicken tenders into mayonnaise, then breadcrumbs. Place on a baking sheet (stoneware works best) and bake at 350° until brown and cooked throughout.

  Creamed Spinach

Recipe is here.

  Salad

  Fresh or Canned* Pears

Thursday Recipes

Notes for Thursday:

1. We are making 2 pans of enchiladas so you can put one in the freezer.
   
   
2. If you already have black beans in the freezer you can use them and skip several steps in the refried beans recipe and go straight to the last paragraph of instructions.

 Chicken Enchiladas

• 3 cups shredded or chopped cooked chicken (from freezer* or buy a hen and boil it)
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 16 oz. sour cream
• 2 onions, sauteed (from freezer)
• 2 bell peppers, chopped & sauteed
• cilantro
• cumin
• Adobo or garlic salt
• 12 whole wheat flour tortillas (if you can't find them, get regular ones)
• 4 cups Mexican blend cheese
• Foil 9x9 pan

Combine soup, 1 1/2 cans chicken broth, and sour cream. Set aside 2 cups of this mixture. To the remaining mixture, add chicken, onion, pepper, and spices to taste. Add 2 cups of the cheese.

Place 2-3 T. of mixture onto each tortilla, roll up, and place 6 tortillas in each of 2- 9x9 pans (use 1 foil pan for the ones you will be freezing). Add the remaining Chicken broth to the reserved soup mixture and pour over enchiladas in each pan. Sprinkle remaining cheese over enchiladas. Cover foil pan tightly with foil or plastic wrap and freeze. Cook other pan of enchiladas at 350° until bubbly.

 Refried Beans

• 1 bag black turtle beans (pinto or red beans also work)
• cumin
• Adobo or garlic salt
• olive oil
• 1 can red enchilada sauce
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Rinse beans in a colander and check to be sure there are no stones or other debris. Place beans in a dutch oven and cover with water so that the water is twice as deep as the beans. Heat to boiling and boil for 2 minutes. Turn heat off and cover, let sit for 1 hour. Drain beans in colander and rinse pot. Place beans in slow cooker and cover with water, making sure the water is twice as deep as the beans. Cook on Hi for 5 hours or Low for 8-10 hours.

Drain beans, reserving liquid (place colander on a lg. pan or bowl then pour beans in). Separate beans into 2 cup servings in freezer bags, reserving 4 cups of beans for tonight's meal. Cover beans in each bag with some of reserved liquid.

Mash 4 cups of beans, adding enough liquid to make beans mushy and soft. Heat 2 T. olive oil in a fry pan and add mashed beans and spices to taste. Stir until hot and bubbly. Heat enchilada sauce in a sauce pan and serve beans topped with enchilada sauce and shredded cheddar cheese.

 Salad

Serve the remaining salad from last night.

 

Friday Recipes

Notes for Friday:

1. This is an authentic Japanese fried rice recipe and is delicious. I took cooking lessons when I lived in Japan and this is one of the recipes we learned. Calrose rice is not the same as white rice. Look for it with the white rice in your grocery store.
   
2. You may not have heard of tamari. It is a premium soy sauce that has the wonderful rich flavor of soy sauce but does not taste as salty. It can be quite expensive at health food stores, but the Food Lion in my area carries it for $.99/bottle. It is definitely worth trying; it is all we use except for marinades that require large quantities of soy sauce.
   
3. Cook your rice at least an hour before you plan to start your fried rice. It works better if it is still slightly warm when you fry it.
   
   
4. Edamame are soy beans salted and boiled in the pod. They are a popular Japanese snack that is sold frozen. If your local grocer, health food store, or oriental food store sells them, definitely give them a try. They are very popular with children since they are a finger food and kids like popping the beans from the pod into their mouths. If you can't find them, serve steamed Sugar Snap Peas.
   

  Fried Rice

• Calrose rice, cooked (about 2-3 cups)
• 1 egg
• 1 onion, chopped
• frozen peas and carrots, thawed
• corn if you like it
• meat (optional)
• soy sauce or tamari

Cook calrose rice according to directions. Heat some oil in wok or deep fry pan (I use about a tablespoon) and scramble one egg in it. Remove egg and add some more oil (I add about 3 tbsp) to the pan, heating. Add chopped onion, some thawed peas & carrots (and corn if you like), and anything else you like in your rice. We sometimes add leftover chicken or canned baby shrimp. When the onions are tender, add the rice and add soy sauce to taste and stir with a big flat wooden spoon or large cooking chopsticks, if you have them (mine are about 18" long). Add the cooked egg near the end of cooking time and stir well. When the rice is heated through and a bit crispy, it is ready to serve.

 Edamame

Boil 1 bag of frozen edamame in salted water until they float. Drain in a colander, rinse with cold water, and sprinkle with coarse salt. Serve at room temperature by holding the pod to your mouth and squeezing until the beans pop into your mouth. Discard the pod.

 

 Grapes

* Indicates that of the options listed, this item is the one on the grocery list.